My trader joes 20/80 ground beef has 1.5 grams of transfat, out of 22 grams of total fat. WTF, I thought transfats only existed in processed foods with vegetable oil.

all ruminants' meat & milk contains traces of vaccenic acid, which is a naturally occuring fat and an isomer of oleic acid (the predominant fatty acid in olive oil).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccenic_acid

it is converted by humans into CLA, which is a good thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjugated_linoleic_acid

incidentally, the saturated isomer of oleic acid is stearic acid, another 'good fat'...

The 'bad fats' are other fats with trans bonds rather than cis bonds that do not occur anywhere in nature. Humans have been consuming the milk & more importantly, meat, of ruminants since the very first deer or woolly mammoth hunter. The trans fats of concern, resulting from the partial hydrogenation of soybean and other oils, were never consumed by humans in any quantity until the commercialization of Crisco one hundred years ago.

the jury is still out as to whether or not the stearic acid that results from full hydrogenation is as good for you as natural stearic acid or as bad for you as other artificial trans fats.

[edit: Guinness screws with my ability to punctuate properly]

I thought cows produce CLA/VA only when they are fed grass.

lots of cows get some grass, few get all grass, even 'grass-fed' beef can be 'finished' (final fattening) with corn.

Throttle said:

lots of cows get some grass, few get all grass, even 'grass-fed' beef can be 'finished' (final fattening) with corn.

Click to expand...

Corn??? But, but, but, we're trying to fatten the cows, not make them lose weight. Why not just feed them saturated fats??? /sarcasm

you'd think people would make the connection, but no.

pass the corn oil.